Alternate Universe
by calgarry
Summary: "The Doctor held up a hand and cut Donna off. 'You think you've got problems? Look at me! I'm Scottish'" The Doctor and Donna wake up in an unfamiliar world, where they must deal with such trials as families, plays, and accents. Set after 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', rated T for adult themes later on.
1. Where the hell is she?

The Doctor held up a book triumphantly. "Look at that."

Donna looked at the cover. It was the book _Death in the Clouds_ by Agatha Christie, with a picture of a giant wasp on the front. "She did remember," she said in awe.

"Somewhere in the back of her mind, it all lingered. And that's not all. Look at the copyright page," he said, handing it to Donna.

She opened the book, and her eyes widened. "Facsimile edition," she read out. "Published in the year…five billion?"

"People never stop reading it," the Doctor told her, a small smile on his face. "She is the best-selling novelist of all time."

Donna sighed. "But she never knew."

"Well, no one knows how they're going to be remembered. All you can do is hope for the best. Maybe that's what kept her writing." He paused, growing more serious. "Same thing keeps me travelling."

Donna looked up at him, and he grinned. "Onwards?"

"Onwards," she agreed, his smile reflected in her face.

Together, they stood up and pulled a lever on the console, staring up at the time rotor; then they looked at each other and grinned.

Suddenly, over the noise of the time rotor, Donna heard a sound coming from behind her, not so much noise as the absence of noise. She thought it was similar to white noise, and turned around in time to see a bright white light, inexplicably glowing in the middle of the air.

Unable to speak, she tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. He turned around in time to see the light expand until it became too bright to look at, taking over the control room. The light and the white noise too over their senses until it was too much to bear, and everything went black.

~o0o~

Donna opened her eyes to find herself lying on her back in a field of grass, with trees towering above her. She jerked upright, and felt dizzy for a moment, causing her to pause and out a hand to her head.

When the moment was over, Donna looked around, trying to work out where she was. She seemed to be in a park, or possibly a green. There were children kicking a ball around in the distance, but no sign of the Doctor or even the TARDIS.

Frowning, Donna pulled a few blades of grass out of the ground and smelled them. They smelled like Earth, which was a good sign for someone who could wake up anywhere in the universe.

She stretched and stood up, noting as she did so that despite waking up on the ground, she didn't seem to be stiff at all. In fact, she felt better than she had in ages.

Looking down, Donna saw that she was wearing a T-shirt with yoga shorts, the type people wore when they went jogging (not that she would be seen dead jogging, of course). On the ground next to her lay an iPod and a pair of sunglasses. _Maybe I was jogging,_ she thought to herself, then shook her head. Surely she would remember that.

There was still no sign of the Doctor, so Donna picked up the iPod and began to walk around the perimeter of the park in the hopes of finding something, anything, to tell her where she was. After a minute, she found a sign that proudly proclaimed that she was in a Richmond Green, in London. _Well,_ she thought, _could be worse. At least I'm somewhere near to home. But where the bloody hell is that Doctor?_

For a horrible moment, Donna had a thought that maybe, just maybe, the Doctor had grown tired of her and chucked her out of the TARDIS. But she shook her head furiously to dissipate that idea. _No way. He'd never do that._

_Probably._

Donna decided that staying in this park was getting her nowhere. She turned on the iPod (deciding that whoever it belonged to had good taste in music) and set off, not heading for anywhere in particular, just seeing where she would end up.

Presently she found herself walking along a cobbled lane alongside the River Thames. She stopped for a few moments and leaned on the railing by the river, looking out across the water to the trees opposite.

There were a few boats on the water, and the man sailing one of them waved to Donna. She nodded back at him. He looked like her grandfather, she reflected with a small smile.

Donna sighed and turned around, resting her back on the railing and looking around. She saw a pub around the corner, the White Cross. _Oh,_ she thought, _I'd give anything for a drink right now._

Pushing off from the railing, she headed towards the brick pub, making a mental note to ask inside if anybody knew the way to Chiswick.

~o0o~

Half an hour later, Donna was striding along the streets of Chiswick when she noticed that something was wrong.

Every time she went home, there were some things that were different, of course, but she was used to that. But this time, there seemed to be too many things that were different. The tree on the corner, where Pamela lived, was much larger than she remembered; the large tree in old Tessa's garden was completely gone, even though she loved that tree, and had watered it every day for forty years.

Furthermore, Donna didn't recognise any of the people she saw in the streets, even in her own. She approached her house with some trepidation, for even though she was certain she was in the right street she did not recognise anything. Even the car in her own driveway was a strange car. _Surely Mum wouldn't have bought a new car, would she? They're always strapped for cash, her and Gramps._

Donna was seized with a sudden feeling of fear as she reached the front door and raised one hand to knock. She paused and took a breath, then knocked twice.

A few moments later, the door flew open and a strange woman looked out at Donna. She had brown hair that was messily tied into a bun. "Can I help you?"

Donna blinked, and glanced behind the woman into the hallway. A child's pushchair stood by the stairs, surrounded by various toys and games. "Uh…" Donna was lost for words.

The woman frowned. "You all right there?" she asked Donna.

Donna shook her head. "No. Yeah, I'm fine. I think." She cleared her throat. "I, er, think I may have the wrong house," she explained. "Do you know where I can find a woman called Sylvia?"

"Do you mean Sylvia Noble?"

"Yes!" Donna was relieved. "Do you know where I can find her?"

The woman shrugged. "No idea, sorry. I don't even know who she is, but we get people asking for her occasionally. Usually students." She smiled apologetically. "Anything I can help you with?"

"No…I'll be fine." Donna smiled and walked away from the house, feeling slightly dazed. It was her house, she was certain. So why was a stranger living there? Where was her family?

Suddenly she was struck with an idea. Heading to the nearest telephone box, she dialled her mother's mobile number. She was met with a notification that the number did not exist. Frowning, Donna dialled again, in case she had misdialled, only to be met by the same sound. She stopped and took a deep breath, beginning to panic now.

Closing her eyes and praying, Donna crossed her fingers and dialled her grandfather's mobile number. Once again, she was told that the mobile number did not exist.

Lowering the phone from her ear slowly, Donna pressed her forehead to the cool glass oft eh telephone box and closed her eyes. Where the hell was her family? Where was the Doctor? Where was she, for that matter?

~o0o~

It had taken Donna a while to calm down after the revelation that she was completely alone. She had walked around for some time, maybe an hour, probably more, trying to clear her head.

However, this had not proven to be a good method for calming down, as even the streets of London city were unfamiliar to Donna now. The evidence of all the strange things that had happened in London – Royal Hope Hospital, the Racnoss ship, the aliens on Big Ben – was all gone, as if it had never happened. The posters telling people to 'Vote Saxon', which normally flapped uselessly in the wind down alleys and on abandoned shops, were nowhere to be seen. Even the people were strange: the shop owners that Donna would normally chat to, the tramps sitting on the footpaths in their usual places, the teenagers who would graffiti slogans such as 'Bad Wolf', all seemed to have vanished completely, replaced by strangers.

Eventually, Donna had an idea. She popped into a newsagent's shop, avoiding the shop-keeper's eye, and bought a newspaper. She hurried out to the street and looked to the top of the front page, searching for the date.

Friday 22 April, 2011.

Donna let out an involuntary gasp and looked around, realising that she was in the future. Five years in her future. In London's future. She'd been to the future before, of course, but that was always a long time away, and usually a great distance from Earth. This, however, was completely different. She was so close to her time.

Donna began to feel a bit calmer. Perhaps her family had moved house in the five years since she was last year, and her mother had changed her phone number. Perhaps the council had finally gotten rid of the signs of alien invasion, and the graffiti.

There was still a knot in Donna's chest, a niggling feeling that wouldn't go away. Where was the Doctor? Surely he wouldn't abandon her, five years away from her time. Would he?

Rolling up the newspaper, Donna put it under her arm and began to walk. Sylvia Noble didn't believe in being in the telephone book, but she had one sure-fire way of finding her family. Her mother would never move out of London, and if her Gramps was in London, there was one place she would be certain to find him.

Not half an hour later, Donna stood stock-still under the purple sky, staring at the spot on the hill which had been her last hope. The hillside lay empty, the shed old and broken and rundown. It was as if Wilfred Mott had never existed.

Her Gramps would never let it get in that state, not if his life depended on it. His stargazing hobby _was_ his life, in some ways. Something must have happened to him, something awful that didn't even bear thinking about.

Donna closed her eyes and slumped against the ramshackle shed, sliding down the side until she was sitting on the ground. She rested her head back against the rotting wood and gazed up at the darkening sky, the sky that was full of stars, and yet so maddeningly empty. It had been an exhausting day, first finding out that the world as she knew it seemed to be gone, and then realising that her family was similarly unreachable. The knot in her chest that she had had since she woke up, her grown larger and was becoming harder to ignore.

She sat alone on the hillside, watching as the sky turned black and the stars grew brighter. She had lost track of how much time had passed when she closed her eyes and curled up on her side, feeling more alone than she ever had before. Gradually, Donna drifted off to sleep, her eyes red and raw from the loss of everything she knew.

~o0o~

Donna Noble opened her eyes to find herself still alone on the hillside where she had fallen asleep. She sat up quickly, noting as she did so the knot in her chest, as well as faint pangs of hunger. Donna realised that she hadn't eaten anything the previous day, at least after she had woken up in the park with no memory of how she got there.

Donna stretched and stood up. She glanced up once at the cloudy sky, before looking away and beginning to walk down the hill towards the strange city called London.

She arrived in town just as the shops were beginning to open. Donna noticed the enticing smell of frying bacon, and followed her nose to an American-style diner. Not her usual haunt, but today was not a normal day.

Donna ordered her breakfast and took a seat, noticing as she did so that a couple of the customers seemed to be staring at her. Look down at herself, she realised that they probably had a good reason: she wore a rumpled jogging-style outfit, and her hair was probably a mess considering that she had slept on the ground.

A waitress brought Donna her meal, accompanied by strong coffee and a frown. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" she asked Donna.

Donna studied the waitress' face. "I don't think so," she said.

The waitress shook her head. "You look like someone from the telly, I'm sure," she insisted.

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm certain we don't know each other," Donna said rather irritably. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to eat my breakfast."

The waitress walked away, affronted. Donna felt bad for a moment, but the feeling dissipated when she began to ravenously attack the sausages in front of her. Glancing up for a moment, she noticed that the other diners were still staring at her. She gave them a look that had them hastily turning their attentions back to their food.

Donna finished her breakfast quickly, and left before anybody else could claim to recognise her. She walked out onto the street and turned left, hurrying along the way she had done the previous day. Today, however, she knew exactly where she was going.

She turned a corner and walked straight into a man going in the other direction. "Sorry," she muttered.

"It's alright," he replied in an unfamiliar Scottish accent.

Normally Donna would have walked away without a second glance, but something possessed her to stop and look twice at the man she had nearly run over. And when she did, she gasped and took an involuntary step backwards. "D- Doctor?" she stammered out.

For indeed, standing in front of her was a man who looked very much like the Doctor, yet…different. His hair was not as unruly, and he looked as if he hadn't shaved for a while. He was wearing a shirt and black trousers, a far cry from his usual suit and long coat. Still, he had the same face as the Doctor, the same sparkling eyes. And a Scottish accent.

The Doctor-like man did a double take also. "Donna?" he said incredulously. "You look…different."

Donna was so relieved to see a familiar face, she could have cried. As it was, she threw her arms around him in a tight hug. "You would not _believe_ the day I'm having!" she exclaimed. "First I wake up in a park, then my family are disappeared – gone! Nowhere to be found. And nothing around here is normal, and to top it off people keep staring at me as if I'm some sort of freak show, and-"

The Doctor held up a hand and cut her off. "You think you've got problems?" he asked her. "Look at me! I'm Scottish!"


	2. Who are David and Catherine?

**A/N: Please note that I updated and extended the previous chapter, so if you haven't read that since this chapter has been posted, please read that first. Thank you!**

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><p>The Doctor and Donna were sitting in a greasy spoon café, at a table just inside the window. The Doctor had ordered a coffee, and they shared their experiences of what had happened.<p>

"I thought you might have abandoned me," Donna admitted.

The Doctor frowned. "Abandoned you? Donna, I-" He was interrupted by the waiter bringing his coffee. "Thank you. I would never do that to you," he told her. "I mean it."

Donna looked down at her hands, which were twisted in her lap, and said nothing.

The Doctor took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. "I've had better," he said, in reference to the coffee (or so Donna presumed).

"So what happened to you?" she asked him. "Where's the TARDIS? And why are you Scottish?"

A look of genuine concern crossed his face at the mention of his ship. He shrugged helplessly. "The last thing I remember is the bright light in the TARDIS, same as you. Then I woke up on a street bench. I couldn't find the TARDIS or its keys anywhere, or my screwdriver. There was nothing. And then London seemed different as well, but I think I worked out a pattern."

"A pattern in things being different?" Donna sounded sceptical.

"There are no signs of anything alien. Everything here is boring, and from Earth."

"Oi," she said warningly, and he held up his hands in surrender.

"Sorry. Anyway, I don't think this is the Earth we're used to, Donna."

She shook her head. "What? There are _other_ Earths?"

"There are infinite parallel universes, Donna," the Doctor said in his 'stupid humans' voice. "Every time somebody makes a decision, a universe is created where everything is the same, except they made the other choice. The decisions could be anything from choosing whether or not to nuke a country, to deciding what sort of toothpaste to buy, or even which way you go in your car.

"Anyway, the universe we come from is the result of all the decisions people have made, and this could be the result of a decision made a long time ago by some intergalactic council to leave Earth alone."

"What, and everybody else in the galaxy will just accept that and leave us alone?"

"They'd be forced to," the Doctor said, with another sip of his coffee. "Someone up there," he pointed upwards, "is protecting the Earth."

"Why?" Donna asked, perplexed. "What would they do that for?"

"Why not?" he countered.

She frowned, and shook her head again. "But that still doesn't make sense. If we've travelled to a parallel universe, then why are you different? And why did we wake up in those strange places like that?"

"Ah," the Doctor said. "I'm still working on that bit."

"Well, you'd better work it out soon, spaceman," she warned him. "Or we're going to be stuck here."

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something in response, but was cut off by the ringing of a phone from inside his trouser pocket. He jumped and stared at Donna. "What do I do?" he whispered.

She raised an amused eyebrow. "For someone who flies around in a phone box, you're not very good with phones, are you? Answer it, you prawn!"

The Doctor extracted the offending phone from his pocket, and stared at it as if it might blow up at any second. The screen proclaimed that the incoming call was from someone called Georgia. He answered it cautiously. "Hello?"

A cheerful female voice replied. "David?"

He raised his eyebrows at Donna. "Uh…yes," he said. "This is David. Is this Georgia?"

"Who else would it be? She gave an uncertain laugh. "Look, where were you last night? I really needed help with Olive. You said you would be there."

The Doctor's eyes widened comically. "Er, you needed help with Olive?"

Across the table, Donna leaned forward with an interested expression. He held up a finger.

On the phone, Georgia was saying, "Yes, and you said you would. Where were you?" She sighed. "Was it that play again?"

"Uh…the play! Yes, it was the play. Sorry, I'm so sorry. Yes. The play."

She chuckled uncertainly. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Oh, I'm fine," he assured her.

"All right." She sounded unconvinced. "Well, you come home quickly, yeah? Or are they making you do Saturdays as well now?"

"I'll be home as soon as I can," he promised, and hung up. He slowly lowered the phone from his ear, to stare at it as if it held the key to the universe.

Donna raised her eyebrows at him. "Well? Who's Georgia?"

"I have absolutely no idea," he said, still staring at the phone. "She seemed to think I was somebody called David, and that I was in a play. She needed help with an olive."

"An olive?"

"That may have been a person called Olive," he admitted, "not quite sure." He put the phone gingerly on the table and dropped his head to his hands. "What is happening?" he groaned. "Why do we look different? Who are we?"

Donna sat up straight. "Well," she said, "I have no idea either. But it looks like someone is expecting you to go home and help her."

"I don't even know who she is!" he exclaimed.

"She might be able to help us find out who you are," Donna pointed out. "But first we need to find her."

"There must be lots of Georgias in London!"

"You give up easily, don't you?" she said somewhat mockingly. "She thinks you're in a play, so this David must be at least partly known, right? At least well-known enough to have a mention on the Internet." The Doctor raised his head questioningly. "So if we can get to the internet, there's a chance that we can find her. This universe does have internet, doesn't it?"

"Bound to have," he said, enthusiasm beginning to creep into his tone.

"So we find an internet café…"

"…and find out what on Gallifrey is going on!"

They grinned at each other and jumped up, ready to go.

~o0o~

Donna sat down at the computer keyboard, flexing her fingers. The Doctor leaned on the back of the chair, watching over her shoulder. "Let's start with David," she suggested, and opened up a search engine. She typed in the words 'David play'. There were millions of results, and no way to sort through them. She tried 'David London play', but there was still no luck.

"Try 'David Georgia'," he suggested, and she did. There were fewer results, but none seemed to be what they were looking for. He shook his head. "We'll never find it," he said, defeated.

But Donna had an idea. She entered the words 'David and Georgia' into the search engine, and pressed enter.

Instantly they were hit with several images of a couple, as well as results for a woman named Georgia Moffet. "Bingo," Donna said, and clicked on the first link.

"'Georgia Elizabeth Moffet is an English actress," she read out. "She was in The Bill, and some show called 'Doctor Who'. This is a picture of her." She clicked on the link, and a picture of Georgia popped up on the screen.

Her eyes widened. The Doctor's hand slipped off the back of the chair, and he stumbled before righting himself, staring at the screen. "What the hell?" he demanded in a whisper.

For the picture they were staring at was one of Jenny, the Doctor's artificially created daughter from the 61st century.

"You got a phone call from your dead daughter?" Donna demanded disbelievingly.

The Doctor was frowning at the screen, eyes quickly scanning the text. "There," he said suddenly, jabbing a finger at the screen and reading it out loud. "'Georgia Moffet is rumoured to be engaged to Scottish actor David Tennant after having his child early in 2011'. That must be him! Look at his page."

Donna raised her eyebrows, but clicked on the link for David Tennant's page. The page took a few moments to load. She tapped her fingers on the desk impatiently, and glanced up at the Doctor. He was staring at the screen intently, one hand on the desk, the other gripping the back of her chair.

Donna turned back to the computer in time to see the page pop up on the screen. Her fingers stilled mid-tap, and the Doctor's grip on the chair tightened until his knuckles were white.

The picture on the screen was of a brown-haired man who was unmistakeably the Doctor. The man in the photo, however, did not look like the Doctor normally, but rather the way he looked now, with a T-shirt and a scruff on his chin.

Donna made a choked sound. "You got engaged to your daughter?" she demanded, rather louder than she had intended. The man sitting at the computer next to them turned and frowned bemusedly at the Doctor.

"Of course I didn't!" the Doctor said defensively, to both the man and to Donna. Then he whispered, "That wasn't me, it was David."

"You certainly look like him," Donna muttered pointedly.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and ignored her, squinting at the screen once again. "David Tennant," he read out, "is a Scottish actor known for his role as…" he trailed off for a moment, before continuing cautiously, "…known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in the British television series Doctor Who."

Donna's eyes widened, and she turned around to look at him as he looked at her. "Television series?"

"Apparently so." His voice was quiet, his face haunted.

Her voice rose in both pitch and volume. "You brought us to a world where you're fictional?"

He shook his head numbly, staring back at the computer.

She clicked on the link. "It's a science-fiction drama, produced by the BBC since 1963. Blimey, that's a long time for one programme." The Doctor didn't react, and Donna rolled her eyes and kept skimming the article. "Um, it's about an alien called the Doctor, who's the last of the Time Lords, blah, blah, blah. It says he's been played by eleven actors…"

"Stop reading," the Doctor said suddenly.

"What?"

He looked at her seriously. "There's only been ten of me so far," he said. "Not eleven."

She frowned. "We're in the future," she pointed out. "Maybe there's eleven of you by now."

"No one should know about their future, Donna," he said warningly.

She sighed and went back to the article on David Tennant. Then she frowned as a thought occurred to her. "So the actor who played you got engaged to the actress who played Jenny?"

The Doctor's eyes lit up. "Yes, of course!" he said. Then the implications of this hit him, and his face abruptly became horrified. "They had a child together, right?"

"That's right," Donna said. She caught his face, and realised what he was thinking. "Ooh, no," she said. "Oh, that's not a nice image."

The Doctor cleared his throat and stood upright. "I think that's all we need to know for now," he said, striding out. Donna closed the window and followed him, glancing back at the computer cautiously as if it might blow up at any moment.

She joined the Doctor on the street, hurrying to keep up with his strides. "Just think, though," she said conversationally. "Two Time Lords getting married. Sort of sweet, isn't it?"

"Happened all the time on Gallifrey," the Doctor said dismissively. "But there's something else, something wrong, something I'm missing…"

Donna was still talking. "And I now you kept saying that Jenny wasn't a real Time Lord, but she seemed like it to me. I mean, she had two hearts and everything…"

The Doctor stopped in his tracks. Donna went crashing headlong into him for the second time that day. "Oi, watch it!"

"That's it!" he breathed, staring wildly somewhere into the distance. The Doctor placed one hand on his chest, then began to pat down his pockets. He frowned, apparently finding nothing, and turned to Donna. "Do you have a stethoscope?"

"And why the hell would I have one of those in my pocket?" she demanded.

"Good point, good point." He nodded, glancing around. "Where's the nearest hospital?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "We're not raiding a hospital to find you a stethoscope," she told him firmly. "Why do you want one anyway?"

He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I want to…to check how many hearts I have," he said in a rush.

She blinked. "You what?"

"It's just…things seem different, and I'm slower and getting tired more easily and things seem duller," he explained. "And my brain isn't working as fast as it was yesterday."

Donna raised an eyebrow. "So what, you think you're human because you're not performing as well as you were yesterday?"

"Well…" He rubbed the back of his neck again, not wanting to offend her.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Come here, spaceman." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him into a conveniently-placed alley (_funny how there's always an alley lurking nearby_, she thought) and pushed him against the wall.

"Um, Donna?" he asked with trepidation as she began to undo his top. "What are you doing?"

"Being a stethoscope," she said, slipping her hand inside his top and pressing it against his chest. He hissed at the contact, and she looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"'S cold," he muttered in explanation, and Donna rolled her eyes. Then she frowned in concentration.

She moved her hand to the right side of his chest, then to the left, and finally to the middle, waiting ten seconds each time. Then she removed her hand and stepped back, leaning against the opposite wall and motioning for him to do up his shirt. "Well?" he asked as he did so. "What's the diagnosis?"

"You're not going to like this," she warned him, "but it seems you only have one heart."

The Doctor froze mid-way through doing up the last button. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. He shook his head, then darted one hand to the wall beside him, wiping a finger down a dirty brick and bringing it to his mouth. He quickly licked his finger, then spat it out almost immediately. "Ack," he said disgustedly. "That tastes like-"

"A wall?" Donna suggested, watching him with arms folded, a small smirk on her face.

"Yes!" he said in disgust. "It tastes like a dirty wall would to human senses."

Donna pushed off from the wall and stood in front of him. "Well, spaceman," she said. "Congratulations. You're human."

The Doctor made a face. "Not again," he muttered disgustedly.

"Oi!" Donna said indignantly. "What's wrong with being a human? And how did you not notice before now?"

"Oh, I suppose the writer forgot that part or something," he said dismissively. "But I'm not only human," he reminded her, "I'm also Scottish."

It seemed strange, but Donna had almost forgotten that he had a different accent, having become used to him speaking. Suddenly she remembered something from what they had read earlier. "That actor, David Tennant," she said slowly. "Wasn't he Scottish?"

The Doctor stopped still once again, and stared at Donna for a few moments before his eyes lit up in realisation. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "I don't just look like David Tennant. I _am_ David Tennant."

She blinked. "I think being human's getting to you," she said after a few moments. "You're talking nonsense."

"No, don't you see?" The Doctor/David ran a hand through his hair. "Something or someone has transported us to this world where we're fictional, but they've also transported us into the bodies of the actors who played us! That's why we look slightly different, and why I had David's phone, and why Jenny – Georgia, sorry – thought I was David. Because I am."

Donna looked down at herself. "So whose body am I in, then?" she asked. "What's her name? And more to the point, where are they, these actors?" She gasped as a thought struck her. "If we're in their bodies, then-"

"They must be in our bodies," the Doctor finished for her. "In another universe, David Tennant and an actress are right now wondering where they are, and what they're doing in the TARDIS."

"Bloody hell," Donna breathed. "Will they be all right?"

"Can't say." He ran a hand through his hair worriedly. "But what we can do, Donna, is to find out whose body you're in. Then maybe we can trace who has done this, and why, and work out how to get back to our world."

She raised her eyebrows. "Is that all?"

"Not quite," he told her. "Someone needs to help Georgia with her daughter."


	3. How many children does he have?

**A/N: I feel I should point out at this point that while major details in this story are based on true events, I made up most (if not all) of the other events, as well as the personalities of most of the people within. Please don't sue me!**

**And in answer to the question asked in a review: yes, the Doctor and Donna will eventually be doing Much Ado About Nothing. It's a Shakespeare play which was performed by Tennant and Tate in 2011, and if you readers have the chance to see it, I would highly recommend it. Also, this story will mention important plot points in the play, but it's not really spoilers because the story's been around for hundreds of years. Enjoy!**

**One last note (sorry): I will be aiming to update this story once every fortnight, week about with another story I am writing, 'The Doctor's Children'.**

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><p>It was a short walk back to the internet café, and before long Donna was sitting in front of a computer once again, this time looking at a page dedicated to an actress called Catherine Tate. The actress, it seemed, was in a relationship with someone called Twig Clark (<em>Twig<em>, Donna thought, _silly name_), and they had a daughter called Erin.

"Oh great," she said to the Doctor, who was once again standing behind her, "I'm a comedian."

"What's wrong with being a comedian?"

"People will expect me to be funny," she explained. "I'm not funny."

The Doctor began to laugh, which he hastily turned into a cough. "No," he agreed, trying not to smile. "You're never funny."

"Watch it," she warned him, waggling one finger in his direction. Then she closed down the computer and stood up. "I think that's all I want to know," she said. "So what do we do?"

The Doctor shrugged helplessly. "The only thing I can think is that we should live out their lives for them. David and Catherine, I mean."

She studied his face for a moment. "You don't look like a David."

"You don't look like a Catherine," he countered.

She rolled her eyes. "We should go."

They walked outside. "So you're really going to go and play Happy Families with your daughter and her daughter?" Donna asked him.

He winced slightly at the reminder, but again shrugged helplessly. "They have a family," he said, "and David is a part of it. It seems that for now at least, I'm David, so it makes sense. Anyway, Catherine has a daughter, who'll be missing her."

Donna jumped slightly. "Yeah, she does. But I don't know how to be a mother!" she exclaimed. "Especially not to an eight-year-old who I only learned existed five minutes ago!"

The Doctor stopped walking, and turned to face Donna, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You'll be fine," he assured her. "Catherine played you, now all you need to do is play Catherine."

"I don't even know what Catherine's like!" she said. "It's easy for you, you already sound Scottish!"

The Doctor was about to answer her when his phone began to ring again. Both jumped violently, and he gingerly retrieved the phone once more. "Hello?"

"David?" Georgia's voice floated down the line once more. "I know you said you'd be home as soon as you can, but how long will that be? My dad's coming over for lunch, remember."

"Georgia," he said carefully. "Sorry. I seem to have gotten a little bit lost. You wouldn't happen to know the way home from…" He looked upwards and read out the street name.

Georgia sighed. "You're hopeless, you know that?" The words were accusing, but the tone was light. "All right. Go to the end of the road, and turn left, then take the next right…" She continued to give directions, and the Doctor listened closely to every word. When she was finished, she added, "Hurry home, or you won't be getting any lunch!"

The line turned dead, and the Doctor turned towards Donna. His shoulders slumped slightly. "What was that about?" she asked him.

"I don't know where David lives," he explained, "so I got directions. It was a risk, I know, but apparently David is forgetful anyway. That could be useful," he mused.

"So are you going to go there now?"

"I think I have to," he said. "Are you going to be all right?"

Donna forced her face into a smile. "I'll be fine," she promised, hoping that he wouldn't guess that she wasn't really fine at all. "Go on, spaceman," she encouraged him when he hesitated. "You've got two daughters waiting for you."

"Shut up," the Doctor said, but he was grinning. He started off down the street, and Donna watched as his retreating back disappeared into the throng of people on the footpath.

Then she sighed and walked off in the other direction, heading (she hoped) for the park in which she had woken up. Donna wasn't sure how she was going to find Twig (_still a silly name_, she thought) and Erin, but she had the seed of an idea. She only hoped it would work.

~o0o~

The Doctor was walking down a suburban street, glancing up at each house as he passed. He knew he had the right street, but he had no idea how he would find the right house.

He reached the end of the street, and turned around and went back the other way. He tried not to make the fact that he was lost obvious, although it was difficult. He briefly missed being a Time Lord (he was better at acting); although upon reflection, the Doctor realised that he didn't mind being human as much as he had thought he would do. He frowned to himself and shook his head, trying to clear away the ridiculous idea from his head.

As the Doctor passed by one house, the front door opened. He turned his head automatically towards the sound, only to stop dead when he saw a familiar face appear at the door. His heart rate increased, but there was nothing he could do about it. "David?" the face asked. "Where are you going?"

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to appear calm. "Hello, Georgia," he greeted his (daughter? Wife? He wasn't sure how to refer to her).

"You've walked right past twice now," Georgia told him bemusedly. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," the Doctor assured her. "Just…thinking. In another world." He made some vague motions with his hands that he hoped would convince her.

They seemed to work, because she gave a chuckle and shook her head at him. "Come on in," she told him, holding the door open. He walked up to the door went inside, leaning slightly away from Georgia as he passed her in the narrow doorway.

She didn't seem to notice the action, though, as she closed the door behind her and went past him into the kitchen. He followed her through, glancing around as he did so, trying to get the measure of the place.

The house seemed to be a fairly average, two-storey, suburban home, with white walls outside and cream inside. Normally the setting would be too domestic for the Doctor to even think about living in, but today things seemed different. He felt like he was at home, despite never having seen the place before.

"So where were you last night?" Georgia asked as she crossed to the fridge and pulled out a tray of sandwiches. "Something to do with the play, didn't you say?"

"Er…yes," the Doctor said, sitting down at a dining chair. "It was the play."

"Whose house was it this time?" She set the tray down in front of the Doctor. "Adam's or Elliot's?"

"Um, Adam's house," the Doctor said, hoping the answer wouldn't get him into trouble.

Georgia pursed her lips as if experiencing an unpleasant smell, and the Doctor winced inwardly, realising he had made the wrong choice. "Can you make a pot of tea, David?" she asked primly, abruptly changing the subject.

"Certainly, Jenny," he said, jumping up and heading over to where the kettle stood in one corner of the bench. He flicked it on and turned around, to see her staring at him, brow furrowed. "What's wrong?"

"You just called me Jenny," she said slowly. "Why did you do that?"

The Doctor forced his face to stay neutral, despite his heart rate increasing. "No, I didn't," he said.

"I'm sure you did," she said.

"Now why would I call you Jenny? You must have imagined it," he told her quickly. His heart was pounding so loudly he was certain she should hear it, but she gave no indication of noticing anything out of the ordinary. "Maybe you're remembering being my daughter. Speaking of my daughter, can I see her?"

Georgia eyed him warily, but nodded. "She's upstairs," she said shortly, and turned towards the table, away from him.

The Doctor managed to make it out into the hallway before his whole body slumped, and he leaned against the wall. _Stupid, stupid,_ he berated himself._ How the hell could you do something as simple as calling her Jenny? Idiot._

He took a couple of deep breaths, before steeling himself and heading up the stairs. It took him a few tries to find the correct room, but eventually he found himself in a nursery. The walls were plain white, but were covered in colourful pictures. A cot had pride of place in the centre of the room.

He walked over to the cot and carefully leaned on the side, peering in. A small baby was just visible amidst the blankets, eyes closed, chest moving up and down rhythmically as it breathed.

The Doctor couldn't help himself; he reached into the cot and gently picked up the month-old infant. He cradled it close to his chest, carefully supporting its head. "So you're Olive," he whispered with a smile. "David's child. Well, my child, I suppose. Aren't you cute?

"I remember my first child," he told her, a faraway look in his eyes. "Back on Gallifrey. The first time I held her in my arms, it was like a miracle. But that was hundreds of years ago. They're all gone now, all my children. All passed on."

The Doctor blinked and shook his head slightly, coming back to the present. He pressed his lips to Olive's forehead once, and carefully laid her back in the cot, watching as she shifted slightly in her sleep. Her face twitched, and her tiny arms moved around fitfully, before coming to a rest on either side of her head.

The Doctor crept out of the room as silently as he could, the smile lingering on his face. He turned a corner and came face-to-face with a young boy. He looked to be around ten or eleven years old, with curly blonde hair. "Hi, Dad," the boy said as he passed the Doctor.

"Hi," the Doctor said distractedly, watching as the boy walked past and into another bedroom. _Dad?_ he thought. _Just how many children do I have?_

He went back down into the kitchen, where the kettle had just finished boiling. Georgia had her back to him, and he took the opportunity to hunt around the kitchen briefly for the cups, taking note for later on. One thing he had learned from pretending to be someone in the past, was to know where things were in the kitchen, otherwise people would know straight away that you didn't belong.

The Doctor eventually managed to make two cups of tea. He deposited one on the table in front of Georgia, and sat down across from her. She took an experimental sip, and grimaced. "You forgot the sugar," she told him.

His eyes widened. "Did I? Sorry." He grimaced apologetically.

She stood up and crossed the kitchen, spooning two spoonfuls of sugar into her drink. Then she sat back down opposite him and leaned her elbows on the table. "Are you sure everything's all right, David?" she asked seriously.

"Yes, of course," he said quickly. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"You've been acting distant ever since you came home," she told him. "It's like you've been in another world. You barely spoke to Tyler on the stairs, and you keep forgetting things."

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. "I'm just…preoccupied, I suppose," he said. "With the play and everything. I'm sorry if I seemed distant."

Georgia's eyes scrutinised his face for a moment, then she leaned back, apparently satisfied with his answer. "It's okay," she assured him. "It just feels like this play is taking over your life, Dave. You never have time for us any more. You speak more to Beatrice than you do to me." She gave a weak smile, tracing the rim of her teacup with one sugar.

The Doctor nodded sombrely, but in his head he was processing the Shakespeare plays he knew. He could only think of one Beatrice, in _Much Ado About Nothing_. "I'm sorry," he said again. "I'll try to make it up to you."

"How?"

"I'll think of something," he promised her, reaching across the table and taking her hand. David Tennant had been neglecting his family, but the Doctor was not going to let that happen any longer. He would never let Jenny be sad again.

~o0o~

While the Doctor was promising himself that he would be kind to Jenny, Donna was wandering around Richmond Green, suddenly unsure of what to do next. All she knew was that she had to find someone called Twig Clark. She didn't even know what he looked like. Was he short or tall? Dark-haired or light? Old or young? She had absolutely no idea (although she was hoping for young rather than old).

She hoped that she was in the right place. After all, she had woken up in Richmond Green, so it probably stood to reason that it was near to her house. Somehow, she doubted that Catherine was one for running long distances.

Suddenly, Donna's foot made contact with a large stone, hidden in the grass. She stumbled, putting out one arm to try to stop herself from falling; but it was in vain. She felt herself falling to one side, waving her arms around like an idiot, until she collided with the hard ground.

Opening her eyes, Donna could see a blade of grass, seemingly growing sideways. She blinked and lifted her head, and the world turned the right way up, which was a relief.

She groaned and out a hand gingerly to her head, wincing when she touched a spot above her right ear. She pulled her hand away, noticing as she did so that there was blood on her fingers. "Ow," she said matter-of-factly, wiping her hand and placing it once again on her head. Yes, the blood was definitely from there.

_Great_. So now she was lost, she had no idea who she was looking for, and to top it off her head was injured. _Just wizard_.

Donna groaned and shakily stood up. She started to walk again, her walking unsteady at first, but then growing more steady and confident as she walked. She kept going, hoping that her head would be all right until she could get somewhere.

Presently, Donna heard the pitter-patter of light running footsteps behind her. She turned around just in time to see a flash of orange before something crashed into her stomach, winding her and nearly knocking her over.

She looked down to see a red-haired girl hugging her tightly around the waist, face pressed into her stomach. "Um, hello?" she wheezed, still winded.

The girl pulled back and looked up at her, and Donna realised with a jolt that she must be Catherine's daughter, Erin. "Mummy?" the girl asked. "Where were you? I was scared when you didn't come home last night!" She wrapped her little arms tightly around Donna's waist once more, and Donna awkwardly put her arms around Erin.

She heard more footsteps behind her, and turned her head to see a red-faced man jogging up to her. "Catherine!" he puffed. "Are you all right?"

Donna carefully took hold of Erin's hands and extricated herself from her grasp, then turned to the man. He had dark hair that stuck almost straight upwards, and a round face that looked as if it was normally cheerful, but at the moment was stretched into a worried frown. She felt a sudden twist of guilt in her stomach at the realisation that he was Twig Clark.

He was still waiting for an answer. "Um, yeah," Donna said lamely. "I'm fine."

"Erin and I were worried sick!" Twig told her. "You weren't anywhere to be found. We searched the park, all the streets around here, everything! I called the police, but they said to wait 24 hours. We only came back here this morning because Erin wanted to check one last time." Erin grabbed onto Donna's arm, as if to emphasise the point.

The feeling of guilt in her stomach grew. "I am so, so sorry," he told him honestly.

His face relaxed slightly, and he stepped forwards and pulled her into a tight hug, which she returned cautiously, with one arm as Erin was hanging off the other one. "I thought we'd never see you again." he murmured into her ear.'

"You're not getting rid of me that easily," Donna said, trying to keep her voice light despite the unwanted tears pricking at the back of her eyes. She hadn't even considered what the reunion would be like with her 'family'. She didn't even know them, but she could tell how worried Erin had been at losing her mother, and Twig at losing his partner, even for one night.

Idly, she wondered how the Doctor was going with David's family. That thought was forgotten, however, when Twig pulled back and asked, "So what did happen to you?"

Donna froze, hoping that the fact she was panicking wasn't noticeable. "I…I don't know," she said lamely, wincing internally.

Twig raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She could sense his disapproval.

Meanwhile, Erin seemed to have noticed something. "Mummy?" she said, tapping at Donna's arm. "Why are you bleeding?"

She frowned down at her. "What do you mean?"

Erin pointed up at the side of Donna's head, and she raised her hand to her head to find the cut on her head from when she had fallen over. She had almost forgotten about it, but now she was reminded, her head was starting to hurt again.

Donna looked back at Twig, who was watching her concernedly. "What happened to your head, Catherine?"

She opened her mouth to reply, then frowned at him. Was he that blurry before? She blinked hard, glancing around at the trees, which suddenly seemed to be less like trees and more like a green blur.

Donna was aware of herself stumbling. There was a voice in the distance, and hands were suddenly on her shoulders, steadying her. "Catherine?" the voice was saying. "Catherine, there's something wrong."

She forced herself to look back at Twig. "Look at you," she said, slurring the words. "You're not even in focus."

That was the last thing she remembered before everything went black.


End file.
